Fabrication of textured surface with controllable wettability via laser-thermal hybrid processing

摘要

Controlling the wettability of metallic surface would be beneficial for many industrial and commercial applications. In this paper, controllable surface wettability was achieved by a facile laser-thermal hybrid processing technique. Either superhydrophobicity or superhydrophilicity was achieved on the laser textured surface through regulating heat treatment temperature. Surface morphology analysis indicated that micro-bumps were created via direct laser texturing with nanoparticles covered on top. In addition, contact angle measurements exhibited the wettability difference for the laser textured surfaces subject to heat treatment at different temperatures. Moreover, surface chemistry was analyzed to elucidate the underlying mechanism for the thermal-induced wettability difference. This study provides a simple and low-cost method for surface wettability control, which is expected to render more practical applications.